Most Popular

Most Recent

Commissioner's Award: Grant High School Community Garden Team

During the 2010-2011 school year, The Grant High School Environmental Club was looking for a project that would help better connect students to the outside community in our neighborhood. They wanted to create something local and immediate and thus was born the idea behind the Grant Community Garden. The students who led this project knew that they would need funding and support from key adults in order to make the garden a reality so they began to systematically organize meetings with the necessary stakeholders and continued to develop a year long plan.

Over the course of the 2011-12 school year, they were awarded a State Farm Insurance Grant and attended numerous meetings with community groups, city officials, and school board members. They learned to help adults get to the “yes” and how to work across numerous bureaucratic organizations. This past June 2012, with the support of the Portland Community Garden Team, our garden opened to the Grant community of seniors, families, and young people. Their desire and spirit to do for others in their community serves as an inspiration for other Grant students to help make a positive change in our communities across Portland.